The No. 2 Alabama Crimson Tide and the No. 19 LSU Tigers face off on Saturday.
Every year, there are games you circle on your calendar that you really want to watch. Most of the time, those games are going to be tight, but usually high-scoring affairs. However, this weekend will not involve a lot of scoring, but that does not mean that you should not switch the channel and get into it. Alabama-LSU bouts are always those games where there are not a lot of points being scored, but this specific game is never over until the fourth quarter because of the brilliant defenses that are usually involved. Now, LSU may already have two losses, but Alabama is right there in the fight for the top spot.
Alabama began this season as they usually do, being anointed both SEC and National Champion before they even set foot on a field. Now, for most teams, you would be afraid of them getting super confident and cocky. Not Nick Saban and his boys, because Alabama gets the best shot of every team they play because, in order to be the best, you have got to beat the best.
That is what LSU is trying to do this weekend. They want to prove they are not just a stepping stone for Alabama to waltz into the championship game. They want to make Alabama earn that championship berth. To do earn that right, those boys from Tuscaloosa are going to have to get through Ed Orgeron and his Tigers this weekend.
Alabama is led again this year by Jalen Hurts and a stable of big, fast and dominant running backs. If there is one thing you can be certain of with Alabama, it is that they will never be short on weapons. Now, Jalen Hurts does not put up the best of numbers, as he has only thrown for 1,223 yards and run for 572, but one thing he does better than a lot of quarterbacks is he limits his turnovers, as he has only thrown one interception this year. If that isn’t enough trouble, then have fun trying to stop all of their running backs, as all of them average over five yards a carry, with Damien Harris and Bo Scarbrough leading the way with 697 and 377 yards, respectively. Also, if you throw eight men in the box, have fun trying to stop Calvin Ridley, as he has over 500 receiving yards this year.
Now, with all of this talk about the Tide in Tuscaloosa, you would have thought we forgot about LSU. If Alabama takes this game lightly, LSU will be there ready to beat them into the ground. They have Danny Etling, who has thrown for 1,452 yards, nine touchdowns and only one interception. They have an effective running back in Derrius Guice, who has run for 711 yards and six touchdowns. Etling’s favorite target throughout the year has consistently been D.J. Chark with over 530 yards receiving already this year.
Like we said above, the offense has never been the thing that people think of when they think about the SEC. When people think of the SEC, they think of one thing: Defense. These two teams are two of the best defenses you will see throughout the entire country. Now LSU only has one conference loss, so if they were able to win this game, it would not only make it that much harder for Alabama to win the SEC, but to also get into the College Football Playoff, something that everyone expected them to do.
Details for Saturday’s game are below:
Date: Saturday, Nov. 4
Time: 8 p.m. ET
Location: Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Stadium: Bryant-Denny Stadium
TV Info: CBS
Live Stream: CBSSports, FuboTV
Next: All live stream info in one place
LSU will have a very hard task this weekend if they want to defeat the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa. Not only will they have to find a way to score on one of the toughest defenses in the entire country, but they will also need to stop one of the most dynamic running offenses as well. When the Tigers hire a head coach, they have one game in mind. This game will be a fantastic matchup, and one of the best games in the SEC. Let’s see if Ed Orgeron and the Tigers can do something that has not been done since 2011, and that is to beat the Tide at the house that Saban built.